SA Government appoints new printer group

The South Australian Government has appointed a new group of approved vendors from which government agencies may purchase printers and multifunction devices. The scheme is predicted to save those agencies a total of AU$6 million over three years.

It is compulsory for government agencies to source their printers from the vendors appointed to this special panel. It is expected that South Australian government agencies will spend approximately AU$50 million on printing devices over the next three years.

The companies appointed to the panel, after responding to a tender last year, were:

Canon Australia

Fuji Xerox Australia

Konica Minolta Business Solutions Australia

Kyocera Document Solutions Australia

Ricoh Australia.

This panel was officially appointed on 1 July, and will retain its status until 30 June 2015. The government also has the option to extend the current appointments for up to two additional three-year periods.

There was only one change to the previous line-up of appointees, with Konica Minolta taking the place of HP.

According to the South Australian Office of the chief information officer, the scheme will bring about savings for government agencies in two ways: the panel will provide fixed minimum percentage discounts off retail prices for all categories of equipment; and administrative savings will be achieved by agencies not having to run separate procurement processes.

"It will deliver an estimated average reduction of 24 per cent on the price of multifunction devices, and 33 per cent on printers compared with previous arrangements," Finance and Public Sector Minister Michael O'Brien said in a statement.

"Based on these price reductions, it's estimated the government will save approximately $6 million over the initial [three-year] term of this panel."